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Antecedents of extra-role customer

service behaviour: polychronicity as a
moderator
a
Mustafa Daskin
a
Faculty of Tourism, Hospitality, and Environmental Management,
University Utara Malaysia, Sintok 06010, Kedah, Malaysia
Published online: 19 Jan 2015.

To cite this article: Mustafa Daskin (2015): Antecedents of extra-role customer service behaviour:
polychronicity as a moderator, Anatolia: An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality
Research, DOI: 10.1080/13032917.2014.996762

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2014.996762

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 Anatolia – An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, 2015
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2014.996762

Antecedents of extra-role customer service behaviour:

polychronicity as a moderator
Mustafa Daskin*

Faculty of Tourism, Hospitality, and Environmental Management, University Utara Malaysia,

Sintok 06010, Kedah, Malaysia
(Received 15 June 2014; accepted 6 December 2014)

The purpose of this study is to develop and test a research model that investigates the
effects of nepotism (NEPO) and work– family conflict (WFC) as antecedents of extra-
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role customer service behaviours (ECSBs), as well as a potential moderating role of

polychronicity (POLY) in a service setting in North Cyprus. Total 298 questionnaires
were gathered from a sample of full-time frontline hotel employees. Results based on
hierarchical regression analysis reveal that NEPO and WFC exerted a significant
negative effect on ECSBs. Results also demonstrate that POLY buffers the impact of
NEPO and WFC on ECSBs. By adding an untested relationship in its conceptual
model, the current study lends further contribution to hospitality management literature
and provides useful guidelines to practitioners as well.
Keywords: extra-role customer service behaviours; nepotism; work –family conflict;
polychronicity

Introduction
The achievement of the service organizations mostly depends on frontline employees
(FLEs; food servers, front desk agents, bell staff, and floor attendants) who have very close
and constant interactions with guests and customers. In this regard, their citizenship
behaviours – in other words, extra-role customer service behaviours (ECSBs) that are
additional to the requirements of a role – have become crucial for the service industry
(Chebat, Babin, & Kollias, 2002; Karatepe & Ehsani, 2012; Ma & Qu, 2011). However,
Mei (2009) stress that the number of empirical studies conducted on service-oriented
citizenship behaviours is limited.
ECSBs include two main types of behaviour. The first behaviour is directed towards
specific people or groups, known as interpersonal helping. The second type of behaviour
contributes more towards the overall effectiveness of the organization as a whole, through
conscientiousness and attitudes towards working. According to Organ, Podsakoff, and
MacKenzie (2006), these behaviours appear in the form of sportsmanship, civic virtue,
individual initiative, organizational loyalty, organizational compliance, and self-
development. These types of behaviours are considered to be additional to those already
required from the role, and they are likely to support task performance and efficiency
within the organization by facilitating psychological and social contexts (Karatepe,
Karadas, Azar, & Naderiadib, 2013; Organ, 1997).
Specifically, Bienstock, Demoranville, and Smith (2003) show that FLE’s
discretionary behaviour not officially assigned by the job prescriptions – ECSBs –

*Email: daskinmus@hotmail.com

q 2015 Taylor & Francis

 2 M. Daskin

impact the service quality delivered to the consumers. Hence, extra-role behaviours are
essential to service practitioners in order to encourage this type of behaviour and present a
very important issue for advancing organizational performance (Choi, Baek, & Kang,
2013; Dagenais-Cooper, & Paillé, 2012; Organ et al., 2006; Podsakoff, Blume, Whiting, &
Podsakoff, 2009).
In this regard, competitive organizations should focus on hiring and retaining employees
who are helpful, engaged, and cooperative, often beyond the call of duty. This is more
important for new developing tourism destinations like North Cyprus, where the services
industry comprises the biggest sector in the wider economy and contributes a significant
percentage of the gross domestic product (Alipour & Kilic, 2005; Altinay, Altinay, & Bicak,
2002). However, North Cyprus has been unsuccessful in attracting the expected number of
potential tourists, although it has the considerable advantage of beautiful scenery and multiple
activities on offer for tourists. Recent studies have revealed that North Cyprus tourism has
been facing managerial problems, such as human resource challenges, scarcity of
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organizational resources, organizational politics, and poor service quality (Alipour & Kilic,
2005; Arasli, Bavik, & Ekiz, 2006; Daskin, 2013; Kilic & Okumus, 2005).
Against this backdrop, the expectation that ECSBs are linked to organizational
performance and then service quality has prompted scholars to identify antecedents to
ECSBs (e.g., Mei, 2009; Organ et al., 2006; Podsakoff et al., 2009). Thus, the current study
seeks to advance theory by investigating the context of contextual factors such as nepotism
(NEPO) and work –family conflict (WFC) on ECSBs, as well as a potential moderating
role of polychronicity (POLY) in a service setting in North Cyprus.

Literature review
The society of North Cyprus, as a small island country, is characterized by multiple social
connections of each member through political party membership or association, kinship
relations, and close friendships. Because the job opportunities are limited due to scarce
resources and current economic stagnations in the hospitality industry in North Cyprus, the
executives may generally tend to hire, promote, or reward their relatives or acquaintances
instead of considering the professional knowledge, training, and skills of applicants
(Arasli & Tumer, 2008; Daskin & Tezer, 2012).
Specifically, these aforementioned characteristics of the hotel sector in small states, or
in developing countries such as North Cyprus, make selection and employment of
polychronic frontline staff a more reasonable human resource strategy. Perceived POLY
refers to “the extent to which people prefer to be engaged in two or more tasks or events
simultaneously and believe that their preference is the best way to do things” (Bluedorn,
Thomas, Michael, & Gregg, 1999). Hence, polychronic employees are problem-focused
and have the capability to successfully manage challenging service encounters (Karatepe
et al., 2013). Thus, the need for this empirical research in the North Cyprus hotel context is
accentuated by this prominent personality characteristic. This study develops and tests a
model that sheds light on the impact of WFC and NEPO as antecedents of the ECSBs of
FLEs and the moderating role of POLY between these relationships (see Figure 1).

Nepotism
Abdalla, Maghrabi, and Raggad (1998) stated that NEPO is derived from the Latin word
Nepot (nephew). Today, NEPO is defined as the employment of relatives within the same
organization. Specifically, NEPO is a type of conflict of interests. One negative effect of
 Anatolia – An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research 3

Nepotism
H3b H1(–)

Polychronicity Extra-role customer

(Moderator) service behaviors

H3a H2(–)
Work-family conflict
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Control variables:
Gender, Tenure, Education

Figure 1. Conceptual model.

NEPO on human resources management recruitment and placement practices is the fact
that candidates are recruited because of friendships and bold ties. As these people may not
have sufficient knowledge and qualifications for the job, they may not perform as well as
would other candidates that do have the appropriate qualifications. This causes
unproductiveness on the part of other employees within the enterprise and can negatively
impact organizational justice, motivation, and harmony (Arasli & Tumer, 2008).
NEPO lowers the morale of those employees who supervise the relatives of high-level
executives, those who must work with them, and those who feel that promotions and rewards
are given unjustifiably to the relative (Boadi, 2000; Ichniowski, 1988). Furthermore, NEPO
can affect employee productivity through its impact on employees’ perceptions of fairness
and employee satisfaction (Arasli et al., 2006; Bute, 2011; Poutziouris, Steier, & Smyrnios,
2004; Spranger, Colarelli, Dimotakis, Jacob, & Arvey, 2012).
In the management literature, there have only been a few studies attempting to
investigate the effect of NEPO on employees’ attitudinal and behavioural job outcomes.
However, to our knowledge, there is no empirical evidence upon its relationship with
ECSBs. Based on the above discussion, it would seem to presume that NEPO can also
affect the behavioural outcomes of employees, such as decreasing ECSBs. Thus, the
following hypothesis was formulated:
H1: NEPO is negatively related to the ECSBs of FLEs.

Work – family conflict

WFC refers to “a form of inter-role conflict in which the general demands of, time devoted
to, and strain created by the job interfere with performing family-related responsibilities”
(Netemeyer, Boles, & McMurrian, 1996, p. 401). WFC primarily derives from an
individual’s attempts to perform an overabundance of demands emanating from the work
domain in which the individual functions (Boles, Howard, & Donofrio, 2001). The
dynamic nature of the workforce has increased the potential for conflict among work
 4 M. Daskin

requirements and family and/or social engagements (Carlson, Grzywacz, & Zivnuska,
2009; Karatepe, Kilic, & Isiksel, 2008).
FLEs who are incapable of balancing work requirements with family responsibilities
and social relations are likely to have decreased performance because they have irregular
timetables and limited weekend time off (Babin & Boles, 1998; Lövhöiden, Yap, &
Ineson, 2011) and are expected to deal with a wide variety of customer requests and
complaints in the workplace (Yavas, Karatepe, Avci, & Tekinkus, 2003). Netemeyer,
Brashear-Alejandro, and Boles (2004) contend that family responsibilities and social
relations that interfere with work requirements have detrimental effects on employee
performance. Bragger, Rodriguez-Srednicki, Kutcher, Indovino, and Rosner (2005)
revealed significant negative relationships between WFC and an overall measure of
citizenship behaviours. Accordingly, the following hypothesis was proposed:
H2: There is a negative significant relationship between the WFC and ECSBs of FLEs.
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POLY as a moderator
Hospitality industry is human-oriented one and employees are expected to deal with
several job duties beyond their job specifications. Under the circumstances, potential
employees should possess suitable personality to be able to stay motivated against highly
demanding situations. This is also confirmed by person– environment theory (P– E
theory), which refers to compatibility between individuals and their work environment
(Ehrhart & Makransky, 2007; König & Waller, 2010).
Giving the importance of person– job fit for this industry, it is obvious that ECSBs
among job duties are frequently required, so POLY as a personality trait might be critical
factor in order to attain organizational performance. For example, employees who possess
this characteristic may be comfortable to deal with more demanding situations in a short
time span. That kind of individuals use preference that accurately matches with hotel work
environments, and they engage in working on multiple tasks and frequent switching extra-
role behaviour in the flow of work. Therefore, it would be logical to assume strong
polychronic individuals may be more satisfied with their jobs and show better ECSBs.
Specifically, research reveals that polychronic employees are satisfied with their jobs,
report lower turnover intentions (Arndt, Arnold, & Landry, 2006; Jang & George, 2012),
high-quality job performance (Conte & Gintoft, 2005) and have type A personality, which is
characterized by a high work involvement (Conte, Rizzuto, & Steiner, 1999). Also, an
empirical research conducted in hotel industry has reported indirect impact of POLY on job
performance and extra-role service behaviour (Karatepe et al., 2013). However, to our best
knowledge, there is no empirical research study that POLY moderates the effect of WFC
and NEPO on ECSBs. Based on this discussion, the following hypotheses were proposed:
H3a: POLY moderates the effect of WFC on ECSBs such that the impact becomes weaker
among polychronic FLEs.
H3b: POLY moderates the effect of NEPO on ECSBs such that the impact becomes
weaker among polychronic FLEs.

Methodology
The sample in this study consisted of FLEs (e.g., front desk agents, room attendants, food
servers, and concierges) in 5-star hotels in North Cyprus. The most recent tourism
 Anatolia – An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research 5

statistics of North Cyprus reveal that there are fifteen 5-star hotels in North Cyprus (North
Cyprus Tourism & Planning Office, 2012). The logic for choosing frontline staff is that
they have frequent face-to-face or voice-to-voice interactions with customers and guests,
which put them in a critical position to boost customer pleasure, build loyalty, image,
profitability, and market share for the respective organization (Kusluvan, 2003).
All 15 of these hotels were contacted to ascertain the population size of FLEs
(including supervisors) and obtain permission for administering the survey; 12 hotel
establishments agreed to participate in the survey. This provides an overall sampling ratio
of 80%. There is no statistical information about the total number of FLEs who work in 5-
star hotels. However, according to the participant hotels, the approximate total number of
FLEs was 650.
Furthermore, the research team took the opportunity to distribute 454 questionnaires.
The participants were provided the questionnaires together with an explanation and a
guarantee that their confidentiality and anonymity would be assured throughout the whole
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research process. In order to increase participation rate, the research team aimed to collect
the questionnaires on the same day that they were distributed. In some instances,
respondents completed the questionnaires immediately. Most commonly, the research
team asked the participant FLEs to kindly complete the questionnaires and return them
personally at the end of their shifts on the same day. For the unreturned questionnaires, the
research team again separately visited each hotel where the participation rate was low in
the following days, and the department managers were asked to remind their FLEs to
complete the questionnaires and return them to the drop-boxes left by the research team.
However, this method assured the FLEs that the top management would not have any kind
of access to the information provided. After a week, the remaining questionnaires from the
drop-boxes were also collected and it was found that 302 of them in total were returned.
However, four were unusable due to a substantial amount of missing data. In this research,
the total number of usable questionnaires was 298 and the response rate was calculated to
be 65.6%.
Several sources from the literature were used in preparing the questionnaire for the
present research. The questions of the survey were initially prepared in English and then
translated to Turkish using the back-translation method (McGorry, 2000). The survey
instrument used in the current study was composed of two parts. The first part consisted of
25 questions that related to NEPO, WFC, POLY, and ECSBs. Based on an extensive
literature review, measurements for the related constructs were adopted from existing
measures.
NEPO was measured via five items in reference to the study of Arasli et al. (2006),
which reported coefficient as of 0.88. One of the items from this scale is “In this hotel,
department heads are scared of workers who have kinship in upper administration”.
Higher scores demonstrated higher NEPO.
WFC was measured using five items derived from Netemeyer et al. (1996) and Boles
et al. (2001). Sample item from this scale is “The demands of my work interfere with
home, family and social life”. There is empirical evidence from the hotel industry that this
scale had high Cronbach’s a (0.93) (Namasivayam & Mount, 2004). Higher scores
indicated higher WFC.
POLY was measured using eight items derived from Bluedorn et al. (1999). This scale
was confirmed as valid and reliable measure of POLY called the Inventory of Polychronic
Value (a ¼ 0.86), using 2190 samples (Bluedorn et al., 1999). Sample items from this
scale are “I believe people should try to do many things at once” and “I would rather
complete an entire project every day than complete parts of several projects”. Also,
 6 M. Daskin

previous research studies depicted that this measurement had adequate internal
consistency (Arndt et al., 2006; Jang & George, 2012). After reversing the monochronic
items, higher scores indicated higher POLY.
A seven-item scale was adapted from Dimitriades (2007) to measure ECSBs. This item
scale was originally derived from Morrison’s (1996) study and developed by Dimitriades
(2007) who found adequate internal consistency for this scale. Sample items from this
measure are “To serve my customers, I volunteer for things that are not required” and “I
am assisting co-workers to deliver high-quality customer oriented services”. Higher scores
demonstrated higher ECSBs.
All measures used a 5-point Likert-type scale that ranged from “5” ¼ “strongly agree”
to “1” ¼ “strongly disagree”. The second part of the survey was composed of four
demographic questions: gender, organizational tenure, and education. Education,and
tenure were measured using a 5-point scale. Gender was coded as dichotomous variables
(0 ¼ male and 1 ¼ female).
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The measures were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis using partial least squares
(PLS) (Chin, 1998) to provide support for the issues of dimensionality, convergent, and
discriminant validity (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988). It works well with structural equation
models that contain latent variables and a series of cause-and-effect relationships
(Gustafsson & Johnson, 2004). The measures were also subjected to Cronbach’s a and
Pearson product-moment correlation analyses through SPSS version 21 to provide support
for the issues of internal consistency and discriminant validity. The hypothesized
relationships depicted in Figure 1 were measured using PLS through regression analysis.

Results
The majority of respondents, 61%, in this study were male and 39% were female. More
than half of the respondents tended to be reasonably young, under 34 years old. The
majority of the respondents were undergraduate and vocational school graduates (68.4%).
The years of service of the respondents were between 1 and 3 years (28.1%), 4 –7 years
(34.0%), 8 –11 years (16%), 12 – 15 years (15.2%), and more than 15 years (6.7%). All the
employees indicated that they spent the majority of their working time directly interacting
with customers. In other words, all respondents would be described as frontline staff.

Psychometric properties of the measures

The adequacy of the measurement model was evaluated based on reliability, convergent
validity, and discriminant validity. As shown in Table 1, the composite reliability
measures for the components were above the cut-off point of 0.70, which indicates that
items are free from random error and internal consistency was adequate (Fornell &
Larcker, 1981). Table 1 portrayed factor loadings for each variable, which were calculated
using confirmatory factor analysis. As shown in Table 1, all items loaded on respective
constructs except one from POLY item because its loading was not adequate. Factor
loadings were greater than 0.60, which suggests satisfactory convergent validity.
In addition, average variances extracted for all study variables were above the minimum
threshold of 0.50 (Chin, 1998; Fornell & Larcker, 1981).
Due to the self-reporting nature of the survey, method variance is identified as a
potential issue. As a first precaution for common method bias, the frontline supervisors
were also included in the current study. Spector (1987) reports that the most frequently
found sources of method variance in self-reports are acquiescence bias. The survey
 Anatolia – An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research 7

Table 1. Scale items, reliabilities, and confirmatory factor analysis results.

Standardized
Scale items loadings AVE a
NEPO 0.65 0.81
NEPO1: Nepotistic practices cause internal conflicts in this hotel 0.75
NEPO2: In this hotel, executives are more interested in keeping 0.72
friends and acquaintances in good positions than they are in those
employees’ performance or the organization’s profitability
NEPO3: In this hotel, department heads are scared of workers who 0.65
have kinship in upper administration
NEPO4: In this hotel, it is very easy to remove or to demote people 0.78
who have relatives in upper administration
NEPO5: Employees of this hotel always feel that they need a relative 0.80
in a high-level position
POLY 0.71 0.87
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POLY6: I like to juggle several activities at the same time 0.76

POLY7: I would rather complete an entire project everyday than 0.81
complete parts of several projects
POLY8: I believe people should try to do many things at once 0.65
POLY9: I prefer to do one thing at a time 0.71
POLY10: I believe people do their best work when they have many 0.69
tasks to complete
POLY11: I believe it is best to complete one task before starting 0.72
another
POLY12: It is hard for me to start something new, if there are other 0.75
things I have not finished
WFC 0.70 0.82
WFC13: The demands of my work interfere with home, family and 0.80
social life
WFC14: Because of my job, I can’t involve myself as much as I would 0.74
like in maintaining close relations with my family, spouse, or friends
WFC15: Things I want to do at home do not get done because of the 0.69
demands my job puts on me
WFC16: I often have to miss important family and social activities 0.72
because of my Job
WFC17: There is not a conflict between my job and the commitments 0.78
and responsibilities I have towards my family, spouse, or friends
ECSBs 0.74 0.90
ECSBs18: I am assisting co-workers to deliver high-quality customer- 0.78
oriented services
ECSBs19: To serve my customers, I volunteer for things that are not 0.67
required
ECSBs20: I make innovative suggestions to improve customer service 0.83
ECSBs21: I expend considerable energy to come up with creative 0.79
ways to assist customers facing problems
ECSBs22: I attend functions that are not required, but that help 0.85
customer service
ECSBs23: I exchange ideas with colleagues on how to improve 0.72
customer service
ECSBs24: I deal restlessly with customer problems until they are 0.69
resolved
Notes: All items are measured on 5-point Likert scales ranging from 1 ¼ strongly disagree to 5 ¼ strongly agree.
All loadings are significant at the 0.01 level or better. All internal reliability estimates are above the 0.070 cut-off
value.
 8 M. Daskin

instrument in the present study was organized into various sections by separating the
independent and dependent variables in an effort to reduce single-source method bias
(Podsakoff, Mackenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003). One approach to dealing with
acquiescence responding in surveys and questionnaires is to employ a balance of
positively and negatively keyed items in terms of the intended content. So, the reversed-
keyed items were included in the survey questionnaire of this study.
Further, consonant with the other recent empirical studies (e.g., Brockman & Morgan,
2006), common method bias was checked with a confirmatory factor analysis approach to
Harman’s single-factor test as a statistical remedy. This test is based on the assumption
that common method bias is a serious problem when a single latent factor will account for
more than 50% of the total variance of the measures (Podsakoff et al., 2003). But the
results did not show such a situation in the current study. Thus, common method bias was
not a critical threat to the magnitudes of the hypothesized relationships.
Table 2 details correlations for all study variables as well as the square root of the
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average variance extracted on the diagonal. The items corresponding to each construct
were summed and averaged to obtain a composite score that represents that construct.
Because no correlation coefficient was above 0.90, the results indicate that all constructs
were distinct variables that represent different constructs (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1996).
In addition, measures are also considered to have adequate discriminant validity when the
square root of the average variance extracted computed for each construct is larger than the
correlation between the construct and any other construct in the proposed model (Chin,
1998; Fornell & Larcker, 1981). As Table 2 portrays, all diagonal values were above the
inter-construct correlations, thus, yielded adequate discriminant validity.

Table 2. Correlations, means, standard deviations, and square roots.

Scale 1 2 3 4
NEPO 0.76
WFC 0.41** 0.68
POLY 0.23* 2 0.12 0.72
ECSBs 20.56** 2 0.63** 0.50** 0.77
Mean 3.91 3.74 3.18 4.22
Standard deviation 1.23 1.05 1.30 0.87
Notes: n ¼ 298. **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level; *correlation is significant at the 0.05 level.
Correlation without any asterisk is insignificant. Square root of AVE in the diagonal.

Model test results

Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used for testing the study hypotheses. The
moderation hypotheses were tested following the guidelines provided by Baron and Kenny
(1986). As demonstrated in Table 3, NEPO exerts a significant negative influence on
ECSBs (b ¼ 2 0.26, p , 0.01). Therefore, H1 is supported.
As shown in Table 4, WFC is significantly and negatively related to ECSBs
(b ¼ 2 0.34, p , 0.01). Therefore, H2 is supported. Education and organizational tenure
as control variables demonstrate significant effects on ECSBs in Step 2. Specifically,
employees with more education and longer tenure exhibit better ECSBs.
Tables 3 and 4 also present hierarchical moderated regression analysis results for
testing the moderating effects of POLY. H3a predicts that POLY moderates the effect of
NEPO on ECSBs. As demonstrated in Table 3, the interaction of NEPO and POLY have
significant effect on ECSBs (b ¼ 0.07, p , 0.05). Thus, H3a is supported. H3b predicts
 Anatolia – An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research 9

Table 3. Hierarchical multiple regression results: POLY as a moderator of the effects of NEPO on
ECSBs.
Dependent variable and standardized ECSBs
regression weights
Independent variables Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4
(I) Control variables
Gender 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03
Education 0.08* 0.08* 0.08* 0.07*
Organizational tenure 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05
(II) NEPO 2 0.26** 2 0.24** 20.24**
(III) POLY 0.21** 0.21**
(IV) NEPO*POLY 0.07*
F 7.34** 125.44** 27.54** 4.65*
R 2 at each step 0.05 0.15 0.21 0.23
DR 2 – 0.19 0.02 0.02
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Notes: Organizational tenure and education were measured using five-point scales. Education was measured
using a five-point scale. Higher scores indicated longer tenure and more educated. Gender was coded as a binary
variable (0 ¼ male and 1 ¼ female). NEPO, nepotism; POLY, polychronicity; ECSBs, extra-role customer
service behaviours. The results regarding variance inflation factors did not demonstrate any problems of
multicollinearity.
*p , 0.05, **p , 0.01.

that POLY moderates the effect of WFC on ECSBs. As demonstrated in Table 4, the
interaction of WFC and POLY have significant effect on ECSBs (b ¼ 0.12, p , 0.01).
Thus, H3b is supported.
Based on the aforementioned information, summary of the results concerning
hypotheses is as follows: Both NEPO and WFC were found to be disruptive drivers of the
FLEs’ ECSBs efforts. POLY, on the other hand, was found to be a moderating factor to
eliminate the negative effects of these drivers on ECSBs. In other words, polychronic
FLEs are more able to stay motivated against highly challenging work conditions.

Table 4. Hierarchical multiple regression results: POLY as a moderator of the effects of WFC on
ECSB.
Dependent variable and standardized ECSBs
regression weights
Independent variables Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4
(I) Control variables
Gender 0.04 0.03 0.03 0.03
Education 0.05 0.03 0.03 0.04
Organizational tenure 0.11* 0.09* 0.09* 0.08*
(II) WFC 2 0.34** 2 0.28** 20.29**
(III) POLY 0.31** 0.32**
(IV) WFC*POLY 0.12*
F 5.98** 54.30** 68.87** 11.08*
R 2 at each step 0.06 0.19 0.26 0.29
DR 2 – 0.07 0.13 0.03
Notes: Organizational tenure and education were measured using 5-point scales. Education was measured using a
5-point scale. Higher scores indicated longer tenure and more educated. Gender was coded as a binary variable
(0 ¼ male and 1 ¼ female). WFC, work–family conflict; POLY, polychronicity; ECSBs, extra-role customer
service behaviours. The results regarding variance inflation factors did not demonstrate any problems of
multicollinearity.
*p , 0.05, **p , 0.01.
 10 M. Daskin

Conclusion and implications

This study aimed to investigate the direct effect of NEPO and WFC on ECSBs and the
moderating role of POLY between these relationships. Specifically, the current research
intended to incorporate untested relationships into its model. This is innovative and has not
been attempted before in the relevant literature, and as such this research contributes to the
existing service management literature, as well as providing several guidelines for
practitioners to be applied in their own settings. All the hypothesized relationships were
supported by the findings of the present study.
The finding concerning the effect of NEPO on ECSBs was significant and consistent
with the proposed hypothesis of the present study. Typically, due to a nepotistic climate,
staff members are expected to become non-committal to their organizations’ objectives.
This behaviour often occurs alongside a loss of coordination of their responsibilities, a
lack of cooperation with their colleagues, and limited interest in the involvement of
ECSBs. This significant relationship in the hotel context of North Cyprus might be the
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result of a contextual reality in the industry, such that North Cyprus is a small island that is
characterized by the existence of multiple and complex social connections between
people, either through membership of certain political parties, associations, or family
relationships.
The regression analysis results revealed that WFC exerts a significant negative effect
on the ECSBs of FLEs. This finding also indicated that WFC is a significant predictor of
ECSBs. This was consistent with the findings of Bragger et al. (2005). However, this study
was conducted in an educational context, not a service context where the role of ECSBs by
FLEs cannot be underestimated. The current empirical findings suggest that FLEs who
experience difficulties in spending time with their family and/or social commitments as a
result of their job-related responsibilities were more susceptible to exhibit lower levels of
ECSBs. This result is a useful addition to the existing literature base.
On the other hand, the examination of POLY in frontline service jobs is critical
because polychronic employees are expected to thrive in jobs that are highly challenging
and stressful (Jang & George, 2012). The results also reveal that POLY buffers the impact
of NEPO and WFC on ECSBs. The correlation analysis result also confirms the significant
positive correlation between POLY and ECSBs (r ¼ 0.50; p , 0.01). In other words,
polychronic FLEs perceive less NEPO and WFC and tend to show better ECSBs. This
finding is also the first in the relevant literature, but, is concordant with P –E theory, which
refers to compatibility between individuals and their work environment (König & Waller,
2010).
The findings of this paper have implications for both managers and researchers.
As Organ et al. (2006) suggest that critical behaviours in business organizations are built
on prosocial behaviours. This shows that ECSBs are critically important in the functioning
of an organization, which clarifies why managers should understand what maximizes and/
or minimizes ECSBs.
As this study identifies, nepotistic actions lead employees to ignore their
responsibilities, sense of ownership, and decrease their ECSBs. NEPO may also push
employees to establish new power groups, both horizontally and vertically. In other words,
working in a politically dominated work environment may drive employees to have a
closer relationship with dominating group members, to strengthen their positions, rather
than displaying real performance. In some businesses, family members are the most
desirable employees due to the trust in controlling monetary issues. As such, a position in a
purchasing department may require self-responsibility from a superior to find the most
 Anatolia – An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research 11

convenient raw materials from markets and negotiate the best prices. However, in general,
hotel organizations must avoid the practice of NEPO among employees unless it is
necessary.
The empirical results indicate that WFC has a detrimental effect on the ECSBs of
FLEs. As customer satisfaction starts with employee satisfaction (Rust, Stewart, Miller, &
Pielack, 1996) and FLEs are essential in retaining fruitful customers and guests, hotel
executives should strive to alleviate the adverse impacts of WFC on job outcomes by
establishing a family-supportive work environment. In clear recognition of this, family-
friendly benefits – which may consist of flexible working hours, family leave, and on-site
child care – are ultimately more likely to alleviate the detrimental influences of WFC on
the ECSBs of FLEs.
The availability of family-friendly benefits in the workplace is also an effective tool
for marketing vacant posts to high-performing employees. Diverse regular training
programmes that focus on the critical role of family-friendly benefits in the acquisition and
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retention of successful FLEs, and thus in organizational success, should be organized for
hotel managers. As cogently discussed by Netemeyer, Maxham, and Pullig (2005),
properly trained managers can create a culture that helps FLEs balance work requirements
with non-work responsibilities and make the work itself less stressful. Another potential
remedy would be that hotel managers could employ mentors to provide their employees
with immediate support for coping with conflicts in the work –family interface.
This research has also shown that POLY is one of the determinants of ECSBs. The
current study represents an initial attempt to investigate POLY as a dispositional
characteristic within the hotel work environment, where multitasking efforts are critical.
Frequently, FLEs in hotels must deal with unexpected and challenging situations, and need
to be able to react to these appropriately in a short timeframe. The multitasking,
challenging, and time constraint characteristics of hotel jobs suggest that polychronic-
orientated individuals might be the most suited to frontline areas in the industry. It is,
therefore, important for hotel management to effectively assess the unique abilities of
prospective candidates and ensure they can successfully fulfil the requirements of a given
job within a work area.
As a case in point, managers should rotate polychronic-orientated employees in the
areas where customer interaction is high, for example in a restaurant that commonly
requires multitasking skills. This rotation could be very instrumental in enhancing
employee extra-role behaviours and thus improve hotel performance. Rotation could be
one of the tools in order to understand those candidates’ capacities and position them in an
appropriate unit.
However, it should be noted that the significant association between POLY and FLEs’
citizenship behaviours does not necessarily indicate that monochronic individuals are
poorly suited for roles in this industry. According to Schein (1992), there are a variety of
tasks within the hotel industry and a range of different opportunities that would suit a range
of different personalities and working styles. As such, human resources staff should have
the skills to write appropriate job descriptions, recruit appropriate candidates, and match
individuals to appropriate tasks including those tasks that are best suited to that person’s
unique skill set. For example, polychronic-orientated employees could be placed
in situations, such as the hotel restaurant, where multitasking is frequently required.
Meanwhile, monochronic-orientated employees could be placed in situations, such as
housekeeping, where customer interaction is minimal and multitasking is not required.
The findings reported in the current paper should be considered in light of some study
limitations. The cross-sectional design of the study was the first limitation, which prevents
 12 M. Daskin

the researcher to have causal deductions. Also data from a single source (employees)
generally pose the problem of common method bias, although this did not seem to be a
problem with the current data. Using longitudinal data from multiple sources in the future
would be helpful in mitigating these concerns. This research was unable to incorporate a
qualitative approach. Future research in this area should aim to use in-depth interviews and
observations to provide a more detailed insight into the outcomes and antecedents
associated with ECSBs.
In confirming the findings of the current study, as well as to broaden the scope and make
generalizations, more studies of frontline staff members in Northern Cyprus are needed.
This study used a sample of FLEs from 5-star hotel setting only. Replications of this study in
different service sectors such as banking, airlines, and travel agencies would be helpful in
cross-validating our findings. Finally, incorporating personal resources such as intrinsic
motivation and optimism and other job resources such as training into the research model in
future research would provide additional insights into the moderators of ECSBs.
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